Calls for Papers

Following the success of the July 2018 colloquium, we are announcing a conference “Fan Cultures and the Premodern World” to be held at Oxford on 5 and 6 July 2019. We welcome proposals on various aspects of premodern (ancient, medieval, early modern) culture which can be better understood through the lens of the modern phenomena of fanfic, cosplay, celebrity studies, LARP, gaming etc.

Questions discussed may include but are not limited to:

-Premodern authors as fanboys and fangirls

-Intersectionality and fandom

-The “dark side” of fandom – negative consequences of fannish devotion, including backlash to changes in canonical fan works

-Media as message(s) – the impact of media type on fandom and fan communities

-Game as a spiritual experience

-“Democratisation” of narrative

-Canon, fanon, sequels and adaptations

-Authorial self-inserts

-Theories of fanfiction and how they intersect or intervene in conversations around premodern texts, authorship and readership